Post-pandemic cities: An urban lexicon of accelerations/decelerations

The COVID-19 pandemic has provoked intense public and political debate on the future of cities and urbanisation. Prognoses have ranged from the ‘end of the city’ to reinvigorated visions of green multifunctional neighbourhoods. Urban researchers have identified a set of existing and potential shifts in all kinds of areas: urban imaginaries, material forms, sociotechnical networks, economic activities, social practices, governance arrangements, and spatial configurations. Our starting point is a concern with how the pandemic has accelerated certain processes and agendas and how these operate in relation to circulations that are variously prioritised, catalysed, devalued, neglected and abandoned at different sites across the urban world. At the same time, other processes, priorities and sites have been decelerated, interred, put on hold, and confined to particular margins. Read the full article here!

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Climate crisis could reverse progress in achieving gender equality

People who directly depend on the natural world for their livelihoods, like farmers and fishers, will be among the greatest victims of the climate crisis. In vulnerable hotspots, such as the arid lands of Kenya and Ethiopia, farming communities are already struggling with droughts and water scarcity that kill their cattle and threaten their very survival. The glacial-fed river basins of the Himalayan mountains, or the deltas of Bangladesh, India and Ghana, are increasingly prone to floods, landslides and powerful cyclones. As a result, men are often migrating further to keep their families going, looking for casual work in neighbouring towns or villages for a few days or weeks at a time, or to cities further away. Many try to return home when they can, with whatever they have earned. But during their absence, the entire burden of maintaining the family is on women. Read the full article here!

Living with an Active Volcano: Informal and Community Learning for Preparedness in South of Japan

Article Abstract: In a disaster-prone country like Japan, learning how to live with disaster [ kyozon ] has been crucial. Particularly since the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of 2011, disaster preparedness has been a primary concern of the government. Drawing on Paton’s (The phoenix of natural disasters: community resilience. Nova Science Publishers, New York, pp. 13–31, 2008 ) Community Engagement Theory, which endorses an integrated model that combines risk management with community development, this study discusses the case of Sakurajima Volcano (SV) situated in the south of Japan, with a focus on how the lessons learnt from previous eruption experiences have informed present-day preparedness activities. The study adapts Community Engagement Theory’s quantitative framework to a qualitative analysis to consider the preparedness teaching and learning of a population living with the everyday threat of volcanic hazards in the case of SV. The study argues...

A Retrospective Overview of Factors that Influence Guinea Worm Epidemic in Northern Region of Ghana

This article retrospectively examines the factors which caused Guinea Worm Disease (Dracunculiasis) to spread to epidemic levels, so as to serve as the basis for formulating a national preventive agenda to reinforce the preventive measures which have been put in place to prevent the disease from re-emerging. The hybrid conceptual framework of disease diffusion and disease ecology was used. The mixed method research design was used to collect data from a total of 11 administrative districts. Primary data was obtained from a total of 860 respondents. To achieve a representative distribution of respondents, they were proportionately selected with respect to the populations of their respective districts. A key Informant interview was conducted. Download the full article for free here!

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